Jessica didn’t say it but was pretty sure the reason they hadn’t come up with anything was because of her boss’s insistence on connecting cases that it now seemed clear had been carried out by different people.

Farraday nodded and continued drumming his fingers on the desk. His calmness was as disconcerting as his enthusiasm from the previous days. Jessica looked at the man and genuinely had no idea what he would do or say next. The rhythmic tapping was the only noise in the room and was almost hypnotic.

Tap-tap-tap-tap.

The noise was broken by a knock on the door. The glass windows ran the length of the wall behind her and Cole. If the chief inspector had seen anyone walking past, he hadn’t said anything and the knock made Jessica jump. ‘Come in,’ Farraday said loudly. His voice boomed around the room. A nervous-looking constable in uniform came through the door.

Jessica recognised most of the faces from around the station but they had recently hired some new recruits and the man in the doorway must be one of them because she didn’t know him. ‘What is it, erm, Constable?’ the DCI asked, clearly not knowing the man’s name either.

‘Um, I’m not sure, Sir. A man just walked into reception and confessed to being the vigilante killer.’

17

No one said anything for a couple of seconds but it seemed like an age. Farraday had stopped drumming his fingers and they were all waiting for him to speak.

‘I’m sorry, what?’ he spluttered.

The constable repeated himself but the DCI barely reacted, before eventually replying: ‘You two deal with it.’

Jessica didn’t think she could have been surprised by anything the chief inspector said given his erratic behaviour recently but his dismissive tone wasn’t what she expected at all. A few moments ago he had seemed part-angry and part-upset that the investigation was going nowhere and now someone had walked in and confessed, it was as if he wasn’t interested.

Cole stood first, peering towards the constable. ‘Where has he been taken?’

‘I’m not sure; everyone downstairs was a bit shocked. Someone handcuffed him then they sent me up to tell you.’

Jessica and Cole went down to the reception area where there were far more officers than there might usually be. Word had clearly gone around that something big had happened. Jessica caught the eye of the desk sergeant. ‘Where is he?’

‘Locked downstairs in the cells. He’s refusing to talk to the duty solicitor.’

‘Do you know who he is?’

‘No idea. He just said he was the vigilante killer and that he wanted to talk to whoever was in charge of the case. He wouldn’t give his name.’

Jessica was struggling to hear him over the voices in the area. She moved closer to the desk and spoke louder. ‘Does he seem legit?’

‘Dunno. He’s got the build for it. He seemed quite calm but you never know who’s a nutter nowadays, do you?’

They made their way to the interview room and Cole told the uniformed officer outside to bring the prisoner upstairs. It was just the two of them in the room.

‘What do you reckon?’ Jessica asked.

‘It’s hard to know.’

‘If he is who he says he is then he’ll have heard about Donald McKenna’s DNA being found at the scene. None of that’s been in the papers so if he’s just an attention-seeker, that’s how we should know.’

‘True but if he is for real and wants to confess it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to put everything on a plate for us.’

As the prisoner was brought into the room, Jessica glanced up and quickly did a double-take. The man looked a little like Donald McKenna – he had a similar build and hair that was the same style and colour but facially he was completely different. It was her reaction that really made Jessica start to feel as if the case was getting to her. Perhaps her verbal assault at the council chambers should have been the first indication but she felt as if she was beginning to see Donald McKenna everywhere. First it was in the description of the person who killed Robert Graves and now the person who had confessed. She hadn’t spoken to the prisoner in a week but he was still playing on her mind, along with the parents of the victims.

The man in handcuffs was offered the seat across the desk and the uniformed officer looked at them to ask if he should stay or wait outside. Jessica motioned with her head to say he could leave. When it was just the three of them, she asked the man for his name.

‘Are you in charge?’ he replied, staring directly at Jessica. His voice was higher-pitched than she would have guessed.

‘We’re both senior detectives,’ she replied.

‘Perfect.’ The man told them his name was Graham Hancock and gave them his date and place of birth, address and, without prompting and for no obvious reason, his national insurance number. Now they knew his name, Cole reminded him he was entitled to a solicitor. The man refused to listen to anything they said, despite being told there was a legal representative on site who would talk with him for free.

With little other option, Jessica formally started the interview. ‘What exactly are you confessing to, Mr Hancock?’

He gave the exact date and location of the first murder and then said: ‘I stabbed Craig Millar three times, once in the neck and twice in the chest.’

‘Why did you do that?’

‘I had seen his name in the papers, causing trouble and that. I’ve just had enough. It’s not right, dealing drugs and causing trouble all the time.’

‘How did you know where to find him?’

‘I checked it all on the computer maps, then went and looked around the area during the day. He wasn’t hard to find so I waited for him one night.’

Jessica nodded. ‘What else are you saying you’ve done?’

He again gave the exact date and place and offered the correct details for the murders of Benjamin Webb and Desmond Hughes. He claimed he knew they often played snooker in a certain club through asking around and had simply followed them. He said there had been a struggle but he managed to kill both men as they had been drunk and unable to react. He also knew their exact injuries.

Jessica thought it sounded possible. He made eye contact with both her and Cole throughout, speaking clearly. He obviously knew the areas involved and got the little details right. He stated correctly that one of the men had been stabbed three times like the first victim, while the other one hadn’t.

‘Anything else?’

‘The prison guard, Lee Morgan, I killed him too.’

‘Why?’

‘I have friends inside and they told me he had been smuggling phones in and giving preferential treatment to certain people in return for money and other favours.’

If true, it was more than they knew.

‘Who are your friends?’

‘I don’t want to say.’

‘How did you know where he lived?’

‘It’s not hard – Internet searches, social networks and so on. They were in the phone book anyway.’

‘Anything else?’

‘No, that’s it.’

It was interesting to Jessica that he hadn’t confessed to the killing of Robert Graves. The media had connected all five murders together but he hadn’t mentioned the final one.

‘Why are you confessing?’

‘Because I feel my work is done for now. Others can continue my cause.’

Whether he was genuine or not, the idea of copycats was chilling. It crossed Jessica’s mind that perhaps the killing of Robert Graves was done by someone copying what they had read about in the media.

‘Do you know we have DNA evidence from the scenes?’ Jessica hadn’t known whether or not she was going to reveal that but everything he had said so far had been accurate.

She saw his eyes flicker sideways slightly but he stayed calm. ‘It’s fine, you can test me.’ They didn’t need his permission to take a mouth swab but the fact he was happy to offer one was confusing. He must know that if he were making it up, he would be found out.